A. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to electronic data manipulation, and more particularly, to a system, method, and article of manufacture for propagating Transaction Processing Facility (xe2x80x9cTPFxe2x80x9d) based data to a non-TPF based platform, such as a relational database, in a timely and effective manner, and for providing the propagated data to a variety of clients.
B. Description of the Related Art
Transaction Processing Facility (xe2x80x9cTPFxe2x80x9d) is a term recognized throughout the data processing industry, and refers to an operating system that is used with mainframes. TPF is highly specialized, real-time, and used for processing transactions. A TPF based system maximizes hardware and software resources for processing real-time transactions efficiently. As a result of its real-time transaction processing capability, many industries, such as airline and banking, heavily rely on such a TPF based system. Moreover, the data stored on a TPF based system, for example, in EBCIDIC (Extended Binary-Coded Decimal Interchange Code) format, is very valuable because it represents real-time information, i.e., information that is maintained in as current a manner as possible.
TPF based systems, however, also have several disadvantages, including problems with development and low data management functionality. The development of TPF and its applications is slow, costly, and tedious, primarily because portions of TPF and many of its applications are written in mainframe assembler language.
In addition to the problems with development, current TPF based systems have low data management functionality. Specifically, current TPF based systems fail to respond adequately to application independence and critical data accessibility requirements of many industries that use the TPF based systems.
Unlike information governed by a relational database or a relational database management system (RDBMS), which supports Structured Query Language (SQL), data resident on current TPF based systems may only be accessed and utilized by applications managed through the limited purpose TPF control programs. For example, if a travel agent needs to obtain a list of passengers scheduled to fly to a particular airport, a TPF based application written for the particular purpose of obtaining that passenger list may be needed. Then, if the travel agent needs some other information, another TPF based application may be needed to execute that particular request. On the other hand, with a relational database, the travel agent may only need to change the query instead of needing different applications for different requests.
Moreover, although a TPF based system maintains huge volumes of real-time data, it is deficient in its ability to present this data in a timely and effective manner for use by non-TPF based applications, such as RDBMS based applications. For example, if a non-TPF based application requires data stored within a TPF based system, such data can be either (1) copied into the non-TPF environment via a batch-processing scenario, or (2) retrieved from the TPF based system via on-line communication channels, such as screen-scraping. Each option is deficient because if the non-TPF based application needs real-time data, option (1) becomes unfeasible due to processing delays and data accuracy impact that is associated with host processor and storage device overhead. Option (2) also becomes equally unacceptable due to communications delay, for example, when the application requires reference to more than a single element of real-time data. Option (2) bears the further significant detriment of requiring extensive modification to applications within the TPF based system to facilitate presentation of such data.
Accordingly, there is presently a need for a system, method, and article of manufacture that allows a variety of clients to have access to the TPF data in a timely and effective manner.
The present invention provides a data processing system for propagating transaction processing facility (TPF) data from a TPF based computer to a relational database associated with a server computer and making this data available to a variety of clients. The system includes the TPF based computer and the server computer, which is coupled to the TPF based computer. The server computer receives the TPF data propagated from the TPF based computer and generates a structured query language (SQL) statement reflecting the received TPF data. The relational database that is associated with the server computer is updated by using the generated SQL statement.
In addition to the system, the present invention also provides a data propagation method for propagating data from a TPF based computer to a relational database associated with a server computer. In this method, the data is propagated from the TPF based computer to the server computer. The server computer generates a SQL statement reflecting the propagated data. The relational database corresponding to the server computer is updated with the use of the generated SQL statement.
In another aspect, the present invention provides a data processing system that assists with miscellaneous function management requests. Such a system includes a TPF based computer with TPF data; a server computer with a relational database, coupled to the TPF based computer, wherein the relational database includes a structured replica of the TPF data; and a client terminal for sending miscellaneous function management requests to the TPF based computer. The TPF based computer sends the request to the server computer. The server computer receives the miscellaneous function management request, generates a SQL statement reflecting the miscellaneous function management request, and sends the generated SQL statement to the relational database.
In still another aspect, the present invention provides a method that assists with miscellaneous function management requests. In this method, a client terminal sends a miscellaneous function management request to a TPF based computer. The TPF based computer sends the request to a server computer. The server computer includes a relational database that has a structured replica of data stored on the TPF based computer. The server computer generates a SQL statement reflecting the miscellaneous function management request and sends the SQL statement to the relational database.
The present invention also provides a computer-readable medium containing instructions for causing a computer to perform a method for propagating data. In this method, the data is propagated from the TPF based computer to a server computer. The server computer generates a SQL statement reflecting the propagated data. The relational database associated with the server computer is updated with the use of the generated SQL statement.
In yet another aspect, the present invention provides a computer-readable medium containing instructions for causing a computer to perform a method for assisting with miscellaneous function management requests. In this method, a client terminal sends a miscellaneous function management request to a TPF based computer. The TPF based computer sends the request to the server computer. The server computer includes a relational database that has a structured replica of data stored on the TPF based computer. The server computer generates a SQL statement reflecting the miscellaneous function management request and sends the SQL statement to the relational database.